The Genealogy market really does need a free place for people to hold and store family information.
Most users are just not willing to spend the $20 a month that many genealogy sites want to charge just to have a place hold their Family Information . Many people start a family tree on one of these sites and then stop the service because they have a period where they don't work on the family research .
Some people will take this information and store it in a place on their computer in a file format like a gedcom file. But the information sits there and it's of no use to anyone.

The death records for Portigliola, Reggio Calabria 1894 have now been extracted and linked to their respective images.

Portigliola is a comune in the Province of Reggio Calabria in the Italian region Calabria, located about 80 km southwest of Catanzaro and about 50 km northeast of Reggio Calabria. ...... Wikipedia

Additionally we have added images for Marriages 1894 for this town as well.
If you would like to add information or correct existing data please contact me using the contact form. Please include the link of the page in the message.
You can access the official town website at Comune di Portigliola.

How many times have we heard family and friends say this to us during our attempts to find, solve, discover something or other, or simply satisfy our curiosity about something?

All of us, throughout our lives set out on some kind of adventure. Maybe it’s only when we try to find friends in a game of ‘hide and seek’, or maybe it’s something larger and more exciting.

The most exciting ‘journey’ I’ve been on didn’t get me in its grips until later on in my life, and for many this is the case. I’m talking, of course, about discovering “who I am”… my forebears weren’t really interested and many allowed the old stories to die with them – Oh if only we had known, I’m sure we would have begun our searches so many years earlier. At a time when many of our grandparents, or even great grandparents were still alive. What memories they must have had. I’m sure that many were very sad and even tragic.

Tales of hunger, lack of employment, parched land where little grew, a feudal system which ensured they stayed at the bottom of the pile…. Yes, they had much to want to escape from and forget, and who could blame them.

But what could they do? Well throughout Europe the rich were getting richer and the poor were getting poorer. Many wanted to escape ‘pogroms’ in their homelands, others to escape a potato blight, others a land that could no longer feed them or give them the means to feed their families. Oh the reasons to want to escape were many and varied!

But they all had the same goals. These were twofold – the first to skimp and scrape in any way possible to raise the cash for at least one boat ticket that would take them to their ‘Promised Land’ (wherever that might be…). If they were among the lucky ones then their wife and children could travel with them on that first journey, but for many that wasn’t possible. Their loved ones were left with their elders or siblings to survive the best they could, often for years, until money could be earned in the new land and tickets bought for them too. But those journeys must have been pretty dire. You only have to look at ships manifests and see how many traveled with little more than a pittance to support them when they arrived.

And when they did arrive – what did they find? People who spoke a language they didn’t understand. Others who could read and write – when often they could do neither. Strange food and sometimes stranger habits – all alien to them, but now – in an instant – all part of their new life which they had to embrace, like it or not! They must have longed for news from home, and as we have seen here on “Gente” some of those letters described in detail the difficulties their loved ones had with the ‘bread winner’ gone.

Oh, if only we had known, years ago, that we would want to discover all we could about these brave people – how much easier it would have been to have begun our quest earlier.

Mulberry Street, New York

But we now find ourselves together here on “Gente di Mare” with a common purpose. To know our own – and to understand who they were, what their life was like and so – ultimately – to discover ourselves!

This is as good a place as any to set out on that adventure because you won’t have to travel alone. There are many here who have already completed their own journeys, have documented them and share them with the many dilettantes and new found enthusiasts (like me) here on our site. And – unlike your forebears - you will travel, this time via the net, to many places your ancestors went to, but with much less hardship than they must have suffered…

Chicago 1890

“Gente di Mare” is a free site, and survives on the occasional donation to help us maintain it’s running costs. This way we are able to continue to gradually build a very strong Surname Database which is open to anyone to see, and in addition all the other ongoing work on our other pages. Pages like the Gente di Mare Italian Genealogy,Calabria Exchange, Angilletta, Resources etc.

And – as a little surprise for you all - here is the new ‘home’ page for:

“Gente di Mare” Genealogy (gentedimaregenealogy.com) today moved into a new phase with the addition of a new version of our Surname Database. This can be instantly accessed from the Surname Database logo found at the foot of all of our pages.

This version allows you to reference check surnames against towns and provinces that are being researched by others. Sources of this kind can often save many hours of tedious searching of manifests, archives, immigration records etc. Often researching is not complete on these surnames, and such ongoing searches can be posted on our forum where help and guidance will be willingly offered to anyone by other members.

We aim to help our members (membership is free) to undertake research themselves by offering guidance on where and how to find what they are looking for. Though at times the path does become very difficult and that is the point where many members – both experienced researchers (like Nuccia) and others who are still very new to the game (like me) - are willing to offer a helping hand. So don’t forget to get your own ‘names’ posted on the database – who knows, there may be others who know of your family!

For us the ideal situation would be that “Gente di Mare” becomes a place where becoming a member is not just a case of finding answers to personal questions, never to be seen again, but hanging out with us and helping others who arrive and find themselves overwhelmed by the task they have undertaken. I fear that many fall at the first hurdle when that becomes a reality. Learn, find, absorb the knowledge and then use it to guide others along the same path you have taken to discover your family history.

This new phase will not be the last. We have several ideas that we are mulling over and looking at how they could be best achieved. But they do take time – and so best be on the look-out for news, and requests for help, on these as and when they are being built.

So all that remains to say is…

We wish you many hours of happy researching here with us on “Gente di Mare”

Well folks the day has come that finally sees us on our all new, singing and dancing Gente di Mare website.
Despite the laughter - and not a few tears - on the road to this moment, I can honestly say that getting to this point has been a mixture of things.....things like the adventure of learning (or trying to) a new 'techie' language. Of watching people like Bob and Liz create bits and solve problems that we saw plaguing us on the first version of the new site. Then the enormous pleasure of working with Nuccia, who for me will always be "The Boss" to my "Dork Vader" (aka 'Dorky Babe'). She has held my, often shaking, hand throughout this traumatic few weeks. And you know I reckon she is just one of those people who just loves to tuck people under her wing and look after 'em.

But now - thanks to a bit of a rebuild, competently carried out by 'our' Devon (the designer) at Treasure Coast Designs - here we are up and running with the site as it should have been on the 9th July. And it can tell the time now too....But what's a month between friends - eh?

Nuccia and I are now looking at a one or two new and exciting projects for "Gente", so keep your eyes and ears open for news on those as they develop. We are looking to create a site for you all that you will be proud of.

I am currently researching the state civil records of Montalto Uffugo. Montalto Uffugo is located in Cosenza Province in the northern portion of Calabria. Surrounded by mountains, Montalto Uffugo is fairly large by village standards. It is the second largest city in Cosenza Province. The largest is the city of Cosenza. The community seems very proud of it's long history and heritage. It is an old city even by Italian standards and the oldest Church in Montalto Uffugo - Madonna Della Serra was built in the 1600's. It's baroque architecture and beauty are the pride of the comune. Montalto Uffugo's most famous citizen was Ruggerio Leoncavello who wrote the great opera Pagliacci. It is said that he based that opera on an actual occurence in the town when he was a child involving a clown and a murder. Today, the town is still very proud of Leoncavello and hosts an annual opera competition in his name. Unlike much of Calabria, Montalto Uffugo enjoys a steadily rising population rather than a declining population. In 2001 the population boasted 17,382 residents. In 1901 the population was 6,991. Besides the state civil records I am also attempting to trace the immigrants who left this comune for The United States, Canada and South America. Address for State Cival Records
Comune
Ufficio di Stato Civile
Via Municipio
CAP 87046
Montalto Uffugo (Cosenza)
Italy

Well after much laughter, one or two moments which bordered on almost 'total despair' and not a few 'curse' words - the long awaited website is here for all to see.

We hope you like it. It is not 'quite' finished, but sooner than make you wait any longer (and realizing that if she couldn't show it to you SOON, then Nuccia was likely to suffer an apoplectic fit), we relented and said something like "Oh for heavens sake - go on then!!!"

The team that has worked so VERY hard to arrive at this point was lead by 'the one' - 'the only'...NUCCIA! She was joined by our own Liz (Chanchis), Lori out there in Oregon and 'last but definitely NOT least' Bob Fornal who managed to correct not only the one ore two errors made by the (expensive) 'web designer' but also the ravages caused by our Nuccia's bouts of 'keyboard finger' (LOL). I have sat here in my distant eyrie unable to help for the simple reason that a professional dork like me could have caused CHAOS!

You should have been a fly on the wall (like I was) and heard the 'techie' conversations (interspersed with the odd anglo saxon expletive) that went on. Especially when the 'Boss Lady' realized that she had 'locked herself out of her own forum! That friends, was a priceless memory.....

But those moments of laughter were really needed to enable the tense moments to be defused and your 'New Gente di Mare" to be completed.

I have been a proud, though small, contributor to this moment, and I do hope that you will explore the new site, and all it has to offer, over the coming months. The final touches to the images should be completed shortly and then you will, we hope, be satisfied with the home that has been provided as a showcase for your skills and your research results!

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